Love them or hate them, Lime ebikes are an increasingly common sight on England\u2019s roads with new figures showing annual profits more than doubling thanks to a surge in riders.<\/p>\n
Lime\u2019s average number of monthly users jumped 31% to approaching 700,000 as it added more than 4,500 ebikes and scooters to its fleet, taking the total to almost 38,000, the company\u2019s UK arm, Lime Technologies, said in accounts filed at Companies House.<\/p>\n
Sales rose by a third to \u00a3148m in 2025 and profits more than doubled to \u00a34.7m from \u00a31.7m, as first reported by the Sunday Times. The progress followed expansion into new cities, including Oxford in 2024 and Nottingham in 2023, adding to its presence in London<\/a>, Milton Keynes and Salford.<\/p>\n Despite the surge in trade, Lime\u2019s UK accounts show it employed just 54 people in 2025, up from 39 a year before, largely because it relies on self-employed contractors to shift and service its ebikes and scooters.<\/p>\n The company, whose parent, Neutron Holdings, listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange last year valued at $1.7bn (\u00a31.3bn), is part-owned by US ride-hailing app Uber<\/a>. Lime was founded in 2017 in San Francisco, California, and now operates in about 230 cities across 29 countries, mostly in Europe.<\/p>\n At the time of the listing, Wayne Ting, the chief executive of Lime, said the company was having \u201cconversations with lots of other [UK] municipalities\u201d.<\/p>\n Lime ebikes have become almost ubiquitous in London. Photograph: Melanie Major\/Alamy<\/p>\n The English devolution bill, passed in April, gives local authorities in England<\/a> fresh powers to license rental ebike<\/a> operators and set requirements around parking, safety and accessibility standards.<\/p>\n London\u2019s transport body estimated in 2024 that one in 10 of the 1.5m daily cycle journeys in the capital are made on dockless ebikes such as Lime, Forest and Voi.<\/p>\n The schemes have fuelled a surge in cycling in London, helped by the patronage of celebrities such as Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and most recently Kim Kardashian.<\/p>\n However, there have been mounting concerns about safety for riders and pedestrians<\/a>. Rented ebikes were reportedly responsible for almost a third<\/a> of cyclist collisions with pedestrians that required police intervention.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, riders have been injured by defective ebikes while cycling or suffered fractures caused by the weight of the bicycle falling on them, a phenomenon known as \u201cLime bike leg\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lime recently began introducing on the UK a new, smaller version of its ebikes, with batteries repositioned towards the back wheel, after safety criticism. More than 1,500 of the new models are now in operation in England.<\/p>\n The company has said that more than 99.99% of Lime trips in London last year ended without a reported incident.<\/p>\n Charities representing blind residents and people with limited mobility have also raised concerns about the difficulty in navigating parts of London amid chaotic parking of rental ebikes on pavements.<\/p>\n